Nigel Farage warns Donald Trump's administration is 'hostile' to Labour's Chagos Islands 'surrender'..by David Wilcock
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The Reform UK leader branded a deal to give the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius 'an enormous mistake'.
The incoming Donald Trump administration has 'outright hostility' towards Labour's deal to hand over control of the Chagos Islands, Nigel Farage warned today.
The Reform UK leader, a top cheerleader for the hard right Republican, branded a deal to give the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius 'an enormous mistake'.
And he suggested in the Commons that the deal - which is due to be signed off next year, may never go ahead due to the opposition of the White House.
Reports today suggest Mr Trump is seeking legal advice on vetoing the agreement announced by David Lammy last month.
It will see the archipelago handed over to Mauritius, with a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia airbase.
But it has been widely branded a 'surrender' of UK territory to a nation 1,300 miles away.
The Mauritian government is friendly to China and fears have been raised that Beijing operatives will able to get close to the facility.
Mr Farage, who has made repeated visits to the US either side of the November 5 election, told the Commons: 'There is outright hostility to this deal.'
But he was earlier mocked for his support for Trump, after trying to get the chamber to congratulate him on his election win at Prime minister's Questions. Replying to his request, Sir Keir said:
The Prime Minister replied: 'I'm glad to see (Mr Farage) making a rare appearance back here in Britain, he spends so much time in America recently, I was half expecting to see him on the immigration statistics.'
He added: 'I did congratulate the incoming President last week, we will work with him.'
Asking for an update on the British-Mauritian deal over the Chagos Islands, including an agreement to secure the UK-US Diego Garcia military base, the Reform UK leader told the Commons today : 'Mauritius has no legal or historical claim to the sovereignty of a group of islands that are 1,300 miles away from where it is, nor does from the international court – it was purely an advisory opinion. There is no legal reason why we have to do any of this.'
Mr Farage said: 'Whatever is said about a lease agreement, as we saw with Hong Kong, these agreements can very very easily be broken. Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned.'
He continued: 'There is no basis for this agreement to continue as it is and if you do, you'll be at conflict with a country without which we would be defenceless.'
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David Lammy last month announced the archipelago will be handed over to Mauritius, with a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia airbase.Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty had earlier said: 'The base on Diego Garcia plays a critical role in countering an array of threats to regional and international security. Without legal certainty, the base simply cannot operate effectively; continued uncertainty would be a gift to our adversaries. This is why the agreement has been welcomed by all parts of the US system and by other critical regional security partners including India.'
In his reply, Mr Doughty said: 'In the absence of a negotiated solution, a legally binding decision against the UK seemed inevitable.'
Allies of the new president slammed the decision last month to hand the British Indian Ocean Territory over to Mauritius, which is 1,300 miles from the archipelago.
Florida senator Marco Rubio, who campaigned alongside Trump at rallies, said it was 'concerning as it would provide an opportunity for communist China to gain valuable intelligence on our naval support facility in Mauritius.'
And Idaho senator James Risch, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the Biden administration of giving in to 'Chinese lawfare' and 'yielding to pressure from unaccountable international institutions like the International Court of Justice at the expense of US and UK strategic and military interests.'
He told Politico: 'The US and our allies must take a long term approach when it comes to making decisions that affect our strategic competition with China, or we will all lose.'
